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I chose to evaluate the article "Family Emergency Scams" from post #8.

Define Problem (Extraordinary Claim):
Can Scammers effectively use emotion to obtain money from people?

Gather Information:
This article is written by the US Federal Trade Commission. To summarize the article, the Federal Trade Commission shows the many types of schemes scammers have been using and specifically how the scammers have been preying on human emotion to obtain money and other sorts of sensitive information.

Evaluate Evidence:
In today's present day, one's information is very public and easily obtainable, thus putting the large majority of the population at risk for scamming schemes that involve family members or close friends, that regard invoking emotion in order to obtain money.

Recognize Assumptions, Emotions, Biases:
Scammers are making the assumption that the people they will pretend to be are in good standing or good terms with the people they will be asking for money. The scammers are also depending on the fact that the family members or close friends will react in an emotional way and send large amounts of money due to the "emergency" happening.

Synthesize Evidence, Identify Alternatives:
Alternative Solution 1: Scammers can effectively use emotion to do a scam, supported by the fact that the Federal Trade Commission has to widely inform the population of these very easily seen scams.
Alternative Solution 2: Scammers can not effectively use emotion to do a scam, supported by the idea that there is not information that leads to the idea that many people have been scammed using this method.

Select Best Alternative:
I have come to the conclusion that scammers can effectively use emotion to create and put forth a scam that has the potential to be successful.

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Post #9: Reason for Belief: Confirmation Bias 

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Post #9: Reason for Belief: Confirmation Bias 

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Definition: By definition, confirmation bias argues the idea that humans favour data and information that confirms their beliefs and effectively helps them with the ultimate goal they are trying to obtain.

Connection: The picture below is an example of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias involves only recalling facts and details that support and confirm one's beliefs. The picture demonstrates that although he read the entire paper about confirmation bias, he seemed to only remember the facts that proved what he already knew and believed in.

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Post #8: Reason for Belief: Emotional Connections

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Post #8: Reason for Belief: Emotional Connections

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Definition: By definition, emotional connection creates an issue for humans because emotions can make humans believe things that are not necessarily true. These very same emotions can also cause one's reasoning to be blurred and create many false realities or irrational thoughts.

Connection: The article below talks about how scammers have been using schemes that involve family emergencies or situations where one's family members or close friends is in dire need of money, making it so the person being scammed would use their emotions to cave and eventually send money or some sort of compensation.

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Scammers may pose as relatives or friends, calling or sending messages to urge you to wire money immediately. They'll say they need cash to help with an emergency - like getting out of jail, paying a hospital bill, or needing to leave a foreign country. Their goal is to trick you into sending money before you realize it's a scam.

Verify an Emergency

If someone calls or sends a message claiming to be a family member or a friend desperate for money:

Resist the urge to act immediately, no matter how dramatic the story is.

Verify the person's identity by asking questions that a stranger couldn't possibly answer.

Call a phone number for your family member or friend that you know to be genuine.

Check the story out with someone else in your family or circle of friends, even if you've been told to keep it a secret.

Don't wire money - or send a check or money order by overnight delivery or courier.

Report possible fraud at ftc.gov/complaint or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP.

Scammers Use Tricks

They impersonate your loved one convincingly.

It's surprisingly easy for a scam artist to impersonate someone. Social networking sites make it easier than ever to sleuth out personal and family information. Scammers also could hack into the e-mail account of someone you know. To make their story seem legitimate, they may involve another crook who claims to be an authority figure, like a lawyer or police officer.

They play on your emotions.

Scammers are banking on your love and concern to outweigh your skepticism. In one version of this scam, con artists impersonate grandchildren in distress to trick concerned grandparents into sending money. Sometimes, this is called a "Grandparent Scam."

They swear you to secrecy.

Con artists may insist that you keep their request for money confidential - to keep you from checking out their story and identifying them as imposters. Victims of this scam often don't realize they've been tricked until days later, when they speak to their actual family member or friend who knows nothing about the "emergency." By then, the money they sent can't be recovered.

They insist that you wire money right away.

Scammers pressure people into wiring money because it's like sending cash - once it's gone, you can't trace it or get it back. Imposters encourage using money transfer services so they can get your money before you realize you've been scammed.

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Scammers may pose as relatives or friends, calling or sending messages to urge you to wire money immediately. They'll say they need cash to help with an emergency - like getting out of jail, paying a hospital bill, or needing to leave a foreign country.

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Definition: Patternicity looks into the idea that it is human nature to look for patterns and tendencies in everything they do in life. The fundamental concept of patternicity is that humans look for relationships with objects that they can relate back to engrained memories or comfortable objects they have already become accustomed to.

Connection: The image below is an example of patternicity. Humans can make connections with objects that would have no direct correlation with what it is attempting to portray.  Among this connection are the ideas of the pseudoscience watchlist, where one example is seen. The image relates to the watchlist of "often appeals to emotion." By looking at the image, humans can see the birds form a smile in the sky, which in most cases could be proven to directly appeal to their emotion of being happy.

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

Images
Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise ...

sachref.wordpress.com

Images may be subject to copyright.

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. Images Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise ... sachref.wordpress.com Images may be subject to copyright.

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Post #6 Red Flag: Confusion of Correlation with Causation

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Post #6 Red Flag: Confusion of Correlation with Causation

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Definition: The red flag confusion of correlation with causation is the idea that two variables or entities in a situation that have some sort of correlation to each other, do not automatically mean that one has caused the other to react the way it did. A short example of this would be the idea that those who own a german shepherd are involved with law enforcement. The two variables correlate in this idea, however, there is no causation between the two.

Connection: The video below looks at the simple idea of how easy it is to have the confusion of correlation with causation. The video uses an analogy on how ice cream and homicide rates both correlate to each other, however, the two do not directly imply that they both cause one another. The real reason the two correlate is due to the weather, which is the true causation between the two. A limitation with this idea is that sometimes two things may actually coincide and directly have causation, but without extensive research and true findings, they could be overlooked and thought of having no causation based on their initial correlation.

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Correlation Does Not Imply Causation: A One Minute Perspective on Correlation vs. Causation

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Definition: The ancient wisdom red flag involves the idea of using ancient remedies, medication,  or traditional practices to help aide in sickness or curing the ill. This leads to the idea that if a course of action worked in ancient times, it should still work now, which may be true but that does not mean that present-day science is inferior.

Connection: The article below talks about ancient beliefs about the moon and how they have changed over the course of history. The first part of the article looks at the idea that full moons have the potential to alter the human mind and create a different personality for humans, making them aggressive, suicidal, and even turning them into werewolves. The flaw with this is that all of the ideas listed in the article are nothing but myths and have never been proven to be true.

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1. Full moons make you crazy.

Since ancient times, full moons have been associated with odd or insane behavior, including sleepwalking, suicide, illegal activity, fits of violence and, of course, transforming into werewolves. Indeed, the words "lunacy" and "lunatic" come from the Roman goddess of the moon, Luna, who was said to ride her silver chariot across the dark sky each night.

For thousands of years, doctors and mental health professionals believed in a strong connection between mania and the moon. Hippocrates, considered the father of modern medicine, wrote in the fifth century B.C. that "one who is seized with terror, fright and madness during the night is being visited by the goddess of the moon."

In 18th-century England, people on trial for murder could campaign for a lighter sentence on grounds of lunacy if the crime occurred under a full moon; meanwhile, psychiatric patients at London's Bethlehem Hospital were shackled and flogged as a preventive measure during certain lunar phases. Even today, despite studies discrediting the hypothesis, some people think full moons make everyone a little loony.

2. Aliens inhabit the moon.

In the 1820s, the Bavarian astronomer Franz von Paula Gruithuisen claimed to have glimpsed entire cities on the moon with his telescope. He wrote that the "lunarians" who lived there had built sophisticated buildings, roads and forts. Most of his colleagues scoffed at his assertion, but he eventually got a small lunar crater named after him.

Sir William Herschel, a prominent British astronomer and composer, also thought aliens lived on the moon and made regular observations about the progress of their construction projects. In 1835, when the New York Sun published a series of fraudulent articles about the supposed existence of life on the moon (pulling off the so-called "Great Moon Hoax"), it falsely credited Herschel's son John, a famous astronomer in his own right, with the shocking discovery.

3. The moon controls fertility.

Perhaps because the menstrual and lunar cycles are similar in length, many early civilizations believed that the moon determined when women could become pregnant. This could explain why female moon deities-from the Chinese goddess Chang'e to Mama Quilla of the Incas-figure so prominently in mythologies from around the world.

In the 1950s, the Czech doctor Eugene Jonas stumbled across an ancient Assyrian astrological text stating that women are fertile during certain phases of the moon. He based an entire family planning method on this hypothesis, telling his patients they ovulated when the moon was in the same position as when they were born.

According to another theory that persists to this day, full moons cause an uptick in births, flooding maternity wards with mothers-to-be in labor. Recent studies have turned up little statistical evidence for moon-induced baby booms, however, and most experts think any lunar effect on procreation is imagined.

4. The moon is a hollow spacecraft.

Several science fiction books of the early 20th century, including H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon, take place within a hollow moon inhabited by aliens. In 1970 two Soviet scientists took this seemingly whimsical premise a step further, proposing that the moon is actually a shell-like alien spacecraft built by extraterrestrials with superior technology and intelligence.

According to astronomers, the moon-though admittedly enigmatic as far as celestial bodies go-couldn't maintain its mass and gravitational field if it lacked a dense core.

5. We never really went to the the moon.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some people believe that the Apollo moon landings were faked by NASA, which used doctored photos, staged videos and other ploys to dupe the public. Proponents of these hoax claims argue that technology was not advanced enough for astronauts to reach the moon and return home safely; they also point to ostensible signs of studio trickery, including the fact that the American flag planted by the Apollo 11 crew in the lunar surface appeared to flutter in the vacuum of space.

In 2002, retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who became the second person to walk on the moon in 1969, grew so exasperated with one conspiracy theorist's accusations that he punched him in the face. The septuagenarian space pioneer was not prosecuted.

6. The Nazis had a base on the moon.

After World War II, rumors circulated that German astronauts had traveled to the moon and established a top-secret facility there. Some even speculated that Adolf Hitler faked his own death, fled the planet and lived out the rest of his days in an underground lunar hideout.

Connections were also drawn between flying saucer sightings-including the famous incident near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947-with the Nazis' alleged UFO development program. These theories form the basis of the science fiction novel Rocket Ship Galileo, published by Robert A. Heinlein in 1947.

7. A rabbit dwells on the moon.

Intriguingly, legends from various traditions around the world, including Buddhism and Native American folklore, recount the tale of a rabbit that lives on the moon. This shared myth may reflect common interpretations of markings on the lunar surface-an alternate take on the fabled "man in the moon."

Shortly before Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, mission control in Houston jokingly referred to the Chinese version of the story, telling the spaceship's crew, "Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, there's one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit." Command module pilot Michael Collins replied, "Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl."

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7 Unusual Myths and Theories About the Moon

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Since ancient times, full moons have been associated with odd or insane behavior, including sleepwalking, suicide, illegal activity, fits of violence and, of course, transforming into werewolves. Indeed, the words "lunacy" and "lunatic" come from the Roman goddess of the moon, Luna, who was said to ride her silver chariot across the dark sky each night.

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Definition: The appeal to authority red flag takes a specific look at how various titles, notable awards, positions of power, and celebrity endorsements do not necessarily mean that the information being shown is in fact true and/or wholeheartedly pure.

Connection: The image below demonstrates the appeal to authority red flag because the Church of Scientology is endorsed and backed by many well-known celebrities, one of which being Tom Cruise. The reason this church is a red flag is because they believe humans are immortal and that human life was made to live forever. This idea leads to the flaw within the logic of this belief, as science has proven that humans are not immortal.

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Post #3 Red Flag: Suppressed by Authorities 

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Post #3 Red Flag: Suppressed by Authorities 

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Definition: The suppressed by authorities red flag looks at the idea that high levels of government or large bodies of influence have the ability to possibly suppress, manipulate, and change large decisions for the rest of the population. This red flag also follows on the idea that conspiracies are real.

Connection: The image below shows the first sign prior to entering Area 51, which is declared to be a US Military Base however, the base has been notoriously secretive with what information is released to the public on the activities that happen inside the location. Many conspiracy theories have been produced based on Area 51, however, the most widely known theory is that of aliens being held and extraterrestrial research being conducted within the base.

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Made by Sophie Mueller, working individually

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Definition: The red flag all-natural is the idea that although a health supplement foreseen through pseudoscience may be deemed as natural, does not mean it can not harm or affect you in negative ways. Natural does not necessarily mean positive or safe.

Connection: The video below shows various items and things that humans sometimes deal with on a day to day basis that are deemed as "all natural" however, most of the items on the list have the potential to cause harm to the body.

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25 All Natural Things That Can Be Harmful To You